The Greats
by Alice-in-chucks
Summary: We join our beloved Roxas & Naminé as they begin an exclusive fine arts summer program for only the most talented (or rich) high schoolers around. Discovering a strange & longstanding hierarchy of popularity, developing friendships (& maybe something more) with some unlikely people, & being seemingly stalked by a shadowy figure begin what turns out be a very, well, crazy summer.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters.

* * *

"Come on, Zex! This is, like, my dream! Offers like this don't come around every day!" Naminé pleaded.

"I still don't appreciate the fact that you applied for a scholarship for this program without consulting me first," her older brother responded, crossing his arms.

"But the important thing is that I _got_ the scholarship," Naminé insisted. "This won't cost us a thing!"

"It's not money I'm worried about," Zexion sighed, slightly exasperated.

"Then what?"

It was a moment before Zexion answered. "I'm not sure I'm comfortable having you live so far from home for the entire summer," he said quietly.

It took all of an Naminé's restraint not to roll her eyes. Of course, she'd known this would come up.

"Twilight Town's not that far from Radiant Garden," she said, keeping an even expression.

"It's a fair distance."

Naminé sighed in frustration. "Why are you being so difficult? Dad said he doesn't care if I go."

"Key words being _he doesn't care._"

But_ I_ do, were the unsaid words Naminé knew Zexion was implying.

"I'll be fine, Zex. Really. I'm seventeen, I can take care of myself."

Zexion stared doubtfully at her for a long moment before closing his eyes. "I'll consider it."

* * *

There was a knock on the door of the room Naminé was currently sharing with her cousin Xion and the blonde-haired girl leapt off the bed, glancing back at her cousin and holding up her crossed fingers, a desperately hopeful look on her face. Xion gave her an encouraging smile.

Zexion stood outside her door with his hands shoved in his pockets. She looked at him expectantly.

"There's a man who lives in Twilight Town, close by to the University," her brother started. "He used to be a friend of Dad's, but don't hold that against him. He's a good guy, name's Professor Leonhart."

Naminé tilted her head. "What are you getting at?"

"You can go to the summer program, _but_," he added pointedly when he saw the ecstatic look blooming on his sister's face, "you have to stay with the professor and his daughter."

Naminé's face fell. "But I don't even know these people!"

"Do you want to attend the program or not?" Zexion countered evenly.

"Of course, but-"

Zexion just stared at her, one eyebrow slightly raised. She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. Two could play at the stubbornness game.

"Weekends only."

"Not a chance," he shot back.

Naminé uncrossed her arms and placed her fists on her hips. "What good will this do?"

"Just so someone's checking up on you."

Naminé released a long breath before taking one final stab at bargaining. "Every other night."

Zexion seemed to be considering this for a few moments before he responded. "Wouldn't that be terribly inconvenient?"

Naminé allowed a small smile to grace her lips and she relented with a sigh, knowing her brother wasn't going to budge on this. "You're ridiculous."

"Obviously I've been spending too much time with you," he answered coolly.

She snorted. "You don't see me being obsessively overprotective."

"Ha, that's a good one," Xion interjected from her spot on the bed. Naminé rolled her eyes, remembering that her little cousin was in the room.

"Hush, Xion. I'm not as bad as him."

"Yes you are," Zexion glanced at the seashell-lined clock on the far wall. "Now get to bed. You have a lot of packing to do tomorrow."

Naminé grinned, bouncing up and down on her toes in anticipation of what was to come this summer. Despite the fact that she'd much rather sleep in the dorms with the other girls, she was still grateful that she'd be able to attend the program at all. "Take care of Xion while I'm gone."

"Of course," he promised, already starting to close her door.

"And this Leonhart guy better not be some kind of creep!"

"Go to bed," he ordered, closing the door in her face.

Naminé couldn't help the grin that came to her face as she turned around and leaned on her door. The slightly worried look on her cousin's face made her smile falter, though, and she bit her lip. "This'll be okay, right?" she asked tentatively.

The raven-haired girl lowered her eyes and fiddled with a loose thread on the comforter. "Where will I go when I need to get away?"

"You can still come here," Naminé reassured her quickly. "Zexion'll take care of you."

Xion pressed her lips together and kept her eyes cast downward. Naminé felt a twinge of guilt, knowing that she spent much more time with Xion than Zexion did. When her cousin spoke next her voice was barely a whisper.

"What if they come for me?"

Naminé sighed heavily, moving over to the bed and draping an arm around her cousin's slight frame. "No one is going to come for you," she said, putting as much confidence into her voice as she could. "You're perfectly safe."

Xion leaned her head against the blonde's shoulder. "I want to believe you."

Naminé ran her fingers lightly through the hairs at the nape of her neck, smiling softly when her cousin relaxed at her touch. "You can believe me. I know it's hard, but there really is nothing to fear. You'll be okay. You will, I promise."

Xion must have heard the almost pleading tone in her cousin's voice, because after a moment she straightened up and looked Naminé in the face, a determined light in her bright blue eyes.

"This is your dream," she said, nodding firmly. "For you, I'll be okay."

* * *

The campus was big. That was the first thing Roxas noticed as he drove up to the student car park, towering buildings looking down on him with their numerous windows. There weren't many kids around, so he figured he was either in the completely wrong area of the campus or a bit early. He wasn't sure where to even begin looking for the admissions office. He bit his lip, pulling into an empty space and unfolding his information sheet. UNIVERSITY OF TWILIGHT TOWN stared back at him in bold print and he scanned down until he found the directions. Fine arts department... He was pretty sure that was where he was. He stopped when he found a note written in loopy cursive.

_Don't get too lost now! There should be signs up somewhere! You'll be fine, my treasure._

A huff of air that could almost be considered a laugh escaped his lips and he shook his head. His mom was always looking out for him, even when it wasn't necessary.

He opened the car door and started walking towards the nearest entrance. Sure enough, before long, he spotted a large square sign on the glass door saying 'UTT Summer Exploratory Program for the Fine Arts' with a large blue arrow pointing to the left. He followed the direction until he came to an identical glass door with a sign declaring '_ADMISSIONS. Welcome, high schoolers!'_ There was a large, too-enthusiastic-looking smiley face underneath the words. Roxas pushed open the door and stepped inside. There was a girl sitting (or rather lounging) behind a desk, with a distinctly bored look on her face, a vast contrast to the overly cheerful face displayed on her door. Her blonde hair was swept back from her forehead, and her eyes stayed trained on the screen of her phone as Roxas entered. He glanced at the whiteboard behind her where a T-chart was sloppily scrawled, one side labeled 'Talents' and the other side marked by a dollar sign. The Talents side had seventeen tally marks under it, while the money side had twelve. She had yet to acknowledge his presence, so he loudly cleared his throat, causing her to lazily raise her eyes, which he could now see were a harsh shade of green. Still she said nothing.

"Er, I'm here for the summer program...?" he ventured uncertainly.

She raised a blonde eyebrow as she appraised him, taking in his worn black and white jacket, black t-shirt, black-and-white checkered wristband, faded blue jeans, black-framed glasses that he'd forgotten to take off after driving, and messy blond spikes of hair. The corner of her lips twitched into a smirk as she swivelled around in her chair so that she was facing the board, plucking a green dry-erase marker from the desk and adding a tally to the 'Talents' side of the T-chart. Roxas frowned slightly, wondering what that meant. "'Course you are," she said condescendingly as she swivelled back around to face him. "It's not like there's anything else going on over here right now. Name?"

Roxas suppressed his irritation at her mocking attitude and answered, "Roxas Isawa."

"ID?"

He pulled out his driver's license and showed it to her. She barely glanced at it before turning to the desktop computer and scrolling down before she found what she was looking for and clicked a few times. "Gotcha. Your room's C215." A few moments later the printer next to the computer spat out a piece of paper, which she stuck in his face. He took it, realising it was his course schedule. He shifted from foot to foot for a moment, wondering where to go, before the blonde girl rolled her eyes.

"Geez, do I have to do everything for you? The guys' dorm is straight across from the admin building, which is where you are right now if you haven't figured that out. C means your room's on the third floor."

Roxas mumbled a reluctant thanks as he left the office, but not before hearing the girl mutter, "The things I do for community service..."

* * *

A/N: For those of you who have read the first installment of my most recent Rokunami fic, _ The Colors in Your Head,_ fret not, I have not abandoned it. I actually started this one before _TCIYH, _and thought I should get it out there. This will (hopefully) be the longest fic I've written yet, and don't worry if you're confused about a few things, all will be explained in the chapters to come.

Thank you for reading, and don't forget to review!

Cheers,

Alice


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Yay, a new chapter! Posting this will officially make this story my first multi-chaptered fic. This chapter is quite a bit longer than the previous one, which was pretty short. Hope that's cool.

* * *

"Naminé?"

The blonde nodded at the brunette who'd answered the door. She looked to be about Naminé's age and had friendly green eyes and long, wavy brown hair. So this must be Professor Leonhart's daughter.

"Great! I'm Olette," the brunette said with a bright smile as she opened the door wider to let her new housemate in. Naminé entered, pulling her suitcase in behind her and returning the smile shyly.

"Hi."

"Come on, I'll show you your room and you can unpack your stuff."

Olette led her up a set of stairs leading to the second floor of the house and gestured to the first door they came to. "This is the guest room. It's kind of small, but I hope you'll be able to make yourself at home in here."

Naminé entered and glanced around. It was simply furnished with a bed, nightstand, dresser, desk, and desk chair, but she couldn't imagine needing anything else. "It's fine," she said, smiling politely at her hostess. "You and your dad are very generous to let me stay here."

"Oh!" Olette's eyes widened. "My dad is in his office right now, I forgot to introduce you. He must not have heard the doorbell. How rude of me, I'm sorry."

Naminé shook her head, smiling reassuringly. This girl was very polite. She hoped they'd be able to get along well. "Don't worry about it. It's easier just meeting one new person at a time anyway," she admitted. "Not that I don't want to meet him, I do," she added hurriedly.

"Oh, no, I understand," Olette assured her sympathetically. "This all must be kind of overwhelming, huh?"

That was definitely an understatement. The blonde hadn't had much human interaction outside of her own family in a while. Ever since their mom had left their dad in Naminé's freshman year of high school, Naminé's dad had basically shut down and stopped caring about anything, becoming more of a couch potato than a human being, so Zexion had stepped in to become the Ultimate Overprotective Father. A few months after, he'd even pulled Naminé out of school, saying it would be too much work to try and get their dad to do the registration paperwork and Zexion wasn't legally allowed to do it himself, but Naminé suspected it was just another way to keep her close. Her brother had studied to be a teacher so he took over her lessons himself, and Naminé drifted away from all her friends and hardly ever went out anymore. That's why when Zex actually agreed to let her attend this summer program, she'd been more than a little shocked. And while she was extremely grateful for the opportunity, she'd be lying if she said she wasn't a little nervous about living with people she didn't know and meeting a bunch of new kids in the program.

She shrugged in response to Olette's question. "It's not so bad so far."

Olette smiled and led her back downstairs to her dad's office. "Dad!" she called before they got there. "Naminé is here!"

They stopped outside the door and Naminé glanced inside. A man with straight brown hair and tan skin sat hunched over a desk. At the sound of his daughter's voice he turned to face them and the blonde saw that he had a long scar slanting down from his forehead to the space next to his eye. She wondered briefly where it had come from, but she was distracted from the thought when he stood up and spoke.

"Welcome, Naminé," he said with a polite nod. From what Naminé had seen so far, they were a very polite family. "You look very much like your father," he added with just the barest hint of a smile on his lips.

Naminé blinked, not sure if that was a compliment or not. Sure, her father was considered to be quite good-looking, but he was, well, a man. She laughed lightly in response, figuring it wasn't a compliment or an insult, simply an observation.

"Thank you so much for offering to let me stay in your home," she said, returning his nod.

"Of course, it's no problem," he waved it away. "Anything for a Strife. Olette, have you shown Naminé her room?"

"Yes, dad."

"Good. You can go get settled in if you'd like, Naminé."

"Alright, thanks," Naminé said and headed back towards the stairs.

Her bed was fairly comfortable as she sat on the edge of it and pulled her neatly folded clothes from her brown leather suitcase. She sorted them into the white drawers of the dresser and then returned to the bed, pulling out the schedule she'd received when Zexion had gone with her to the university's admissions office that morning.

Advanced Art - A107

Dance - B119

Declamation - D230

Theatre - D104

Art was the reason she'd come here; the portfolio she'd sent in to the school was the reason she'd gotten a scholarship. But she was excited for the other courses she'd signed up for, too, specifically dance since she'd taken ballet as a little girl and enjoyed it. The others would be interesting since she'd never tried anything drama-related before.

She glanced at the clock, which read 10:14 pm. She wondered how Xion was doing. Her cousin lived in a troubled household, although Naminé didn't know all the details and had never met Xion's parents, Naminé and Zexion's aunt and uncle. The different parts of the Strife family generally kept to themselves.

What Naminé did know was that her cousin suffered from severe anxiety issues, to the point that she had the delusion that someone was constantly out to get her. The blonde still remembered the first time that Xion's anxiety combined with stress in her household led her to seek refuge away from home. The only place she could think to go had been to her uncle Cloud's house, which she remembered her parents mentioning was in Radiant Garden. That was a few years ago, around the same time that Naminé's father was sinking into his dormant state, so Naminé was the one who took little Xion under her wing. Since then Xion always came to Naminé's house whenever she felt she had to get away, saying that the older blonde made her feel safe.

Naminé couldn't help but feel guilty for leaving her. But hopefully she would be fine at home, and if not, Zexion had promised to take care of her.

Reassured by that thought, she headed to the bathroom that was adjoined to the guest room to get ready for bed. She had classes starting tomorrow morning and didn't want to be tired on the first day.

* * *

Roxas had just plopped his suitcase on the floor of his dorm when the door opened, admitting a boy with hazel eyes and dirty blond hair who was slightly taller than Roxas. He grinned when he saw Roxas, swinging his backpack over one shoulder.

"Looks like we're roomies," he said, flopping immediately onto the bed Roxas wasn't standing next to, face first.

"Yep," Roxas agreed, slightly amused. "I'm Roxas."

A muffled noise came from the other bed. Roxas raised an eyebrow. "Sorry, what was that?"

The boy lifted his head just long enough to repeat, "Hayner," before flopping his face back onto the bare mattress.

"Ah." Roxas proceeded to open his suitcase as he'd been about to before Hayner's entrance and rifled through it for his headphones.

"So what're you here for, Roxas?" Said blond turned to see that Hayner had his face turned toward him now.

"Music," he answered. His brother Ventus had convinced him to audition for a scholarship for the program a few months ago after he'd seen a flyer for it at school. To Roxas' surprise but apparently not to Ven's or any of his friends', he actually got it. "You?"

"Dance. And music, too."

"Sweet. Play an instrument?"

Hayner nodded. "Trumpet. You?"

"Sax."

"Sweet."

"Mm."

Hayner yawned loudly. "Well, I'm beat. It's been a long day. I'll see you in the morning, Roxas."

"'Night."

* * *

"Heterochromia."

The girl to his left turned her head slightly in his direction, a single light brown eyebrow raised. "Excuse me?"

Roxas jumped in his seat. Had he actually said that out loud? "Ah, uh, sorry... I've been trying to think of the term for it this whole hour, and it just came to me now." He fiddled with the band of his black-rimmed glasses. "I didn't realise I was speaking out loud."

The corner of the girl's mouth twitched. "Uh, okay." She turned back to face the front of the room, making it so he could no longer see her green eye. He followed suit, ducking his head to stare at the top of his desk. The professor was lecturing them on something to do with the classics they would be reading (or at least Roxas assumed that's what he was talking about, considering Classical Literature was the name of this course), but he soon got distracted again and found himself watching the girl to his left. She must have noticed his stare because she fidgeted a bit before saying in a low voice, "The blue one has x-ray vision."

His eyes widened for a moment before he realised that of course she was joking. He felt his face heating up, embarrassed not only because he was an idiot, but he was a creepy idiot who just got caught staring.

She chuckled, twirling her blue pen between her fingers before lightly biting the end of it.

Roxas jumped as the bell rang at that moment, and the girl's chuckle increased in volume slightly. Great, it was the first day of this summer program and he'd already been thoroughly laughed at. He averted his gaze to the floor and grabbed his notebook, standing quickly and heading for the door. His shoulders drooped as soon as he stepped into the hall, relaxing in relief. Now he could just find a nice peaceful place to disappear until the next course. Musical Theory, something he was actually interested in.

"I'm Yuna."

Roxas just about dropped his notebook as he whirled around. There was the girl with the mismatched eyes, looking like she was barely restraining herself from laughing at him again.

"R-Roxas," he heard himself stutter after waiting for his heart to start beating again. Seriously, couldn't his tongue at least let him say his own name correctly? How pathetic was he? "I'm Roxas."

The girl-Yuna-nodded as she fell into step beside him. "In case you were wondering, Roxas, I don't actually have x-ray vision." She said it so seriously that Roxas wondered if she actually thought he was that gullible. Well, he guessed he couldn't blame her. Before he could respond, she went on.

"The blue eye's actually colourblind."

Roxas almost tripped. Almost. "I-is that even possible?"

Yuna smirked. "Just joking again, although it could be possible. I don't really know..." Her smirk faded, eyebrows furrowing as she thought about this. She fiddled with the end of her one long, feathered earring and turned to him again. "So where are you headed now?"

Roxas took a moment to answer, shaking off his slight embarrassment at acting like a moron. "Musical Theory."

Yuna nodded. "Hey, same here. The basic course?"

He bit his lip. "No, actually the advanced course."

Her face fell slightly. "Oh. Well, that's cool."

"Yeah..." Roxas awkwardly ran a hand through his hair.

Yuna tilted her head slightly. "So where are you from?"

"Traverse Town."

Her eyes lit up. "That's cool! I'm from Besaid."

Roxas's eyebrows shot up. "I didn't think anyone who lives as far away as Besaid would even know about this program."

"I heard about it from someone who found it online," she answered, twirling her earring. Then she smiled slightly and looked at him. "We're definitely gonna have to talk more later. Right now I gotta run." She jerked her head towards the door they'd just passed.

Roxas nodded. "See ya."

Yuna turned back the direction they had just come. Roxas stopped as he realised he'd been walking without any real sense of where he was going, and pulled out his schedule. Yuna had said she had a music theory class now, too, so he must be in the right area. Sure enough, the room number on his schedule matched the number on the door he was standing directly in front of. He stuffed his schedule roughly back into his pocket before entering. The room had posters sprinkled on the walls sporting photos of famous composers and reminders of musical terms. Roxas spotted Hayner sitting near the back and went to sit next to him, grateful that at least there was a face he recognised in this course.

Hayner gave him a nod as he took a seat. The professor, a middle-aged man who looked like he missed his calling as a martial arts instructor, called for the students to quiet down, though no one was really talking anyway. He introduced himself as Eraqus and started explaining what they'd be doing in that course. They didn't do a lot since it was just the first day, but glancing around the room Roxas could tell who was in this class because music was their passion and who was here because they were required to take four courses and 'broaden their horizons' a bit. Roxas himself was firmly in the former group. Most of the rest of the class seemed to be, also, probably since this was the advanced class, which was great. Classes were always more fun when his classmates were just as interested in the suggest as he was. This Eraqus guy seemed decent enough, and the blond thought the class had some serious potential to be worth his while.

The hour ended and Roxas pulled out his schedule as he said a quick goodbye to Hayner. Chamber and Solo Performance was the last course he had before the lunch break. The blond wandered around until he found the correct room and went inside, but he had to stop just inside the door and simply stare for a moment at the sight before him.

The room was large and reminded him of the band hall at his high school in Traverse Town. The entire wall at the front of the room was lined with instruments, most of which he recognised and some he had never seen before in his life. A guy who was probably a few years older than Roxas was sitting cross-legged against the wall, strumming idly on some unknown instrument. He was sporting the strangest version of a mullet Roxas had ever seen (not that he'd seen many mullets, but still) and had his eyes half shut in a daze, making Roxas wonder if he even realised his fingers were moving across the strings. The melodic sounds drifted back to Roxas's ears and the blond could feel his body slowly relaxing. This class was the reason he'd signed up for the summer program in the first place. He tore his eyes away from the sight and went to find a chair. He found one next to a girl with long blonde hair that she wore in a ponytail high on her head, with beaded braids hanging down around her face and a wide blue head-wrap. She had her legs crossed and was fiddling around with the phone in her hand. Roxas was half-way in the sitting position when he did a double take. Was-was that _his_ phone? It had the black and white checkered case he'd bought a year ago and was the same size... His hands instantly flew to his pockets and, sure enough, there was no phone in there.

He gaped at her for a moment before she noticed him awkwardly half-sitting, half-standing next to her. She looked up.

"Is there a problem?" the girl asked, innocently blinking her green eyes.

"That's my phone!" Roxas accused, standing up all the way.

"Oh," she glanced down at the object disinterestedly, "so it is."

"Why-_how_ do you have my phone?" Roxas asked in bewilderment, running a hand through his blond spikes.

"You sit in front of me in Music Theory," she said simply.

He frowned. "Did I drop it as I was leaving or something?"

"No."

His frown deepened. "So... you just took it."

She nodded. Roxas blinked, not even sure how to respond to such shamelessness.

Phone-thief chuckled as she twirled the stolen item around in her hands. "Don't worry, Spiky. I was gonna give it back to you-probably."

Seeing that Roxas did nothing but continue to stare at her with no small amount of irritation, she pursed her lips and tapped the phone against her chin.

"Tell you what-we'll make a trade. I'll give you your phone back if you introduce me to the guy who was sitting next to you in Music Theory."

"Who?" Roxas asked, eyebrow raised. The thief shrugged.

"The tall, handsome one," she answered with a roll of her eyes. "You didn't even notice who you were sitting next to?"

He frowned. Did she really think she had leverage in this deal? "I could just take my phone back."

"You could try, but-" she stopped abruptly as the phone was swiped out of her grasp. Her green eyes widened slightly before she recollected herself, huffing and crossing her arms. "Well. My reflexes seem to be in sad shape."

"Don't take people's stuff," Roxas sighed as he sunk into the chair next to her.

"I can just introduce myself to him anyways, not like I needed your help," Phone-thief pouted, ignoring his comment, but the lack of bitterness in her voice let Roxas know that she wasn't really upset.

You do that, he thought with an inward eye roll as he stuffed the phone back into his pocket.

"Ven texted you, by the way," the girl said, turning around the chair in front of her and propping her feet on it.

Roxas glanced at her in surprise before pulling out his phone again. Sure enough, there was a message from his brother. He opened it, his annoyance at the blonde girl increasing at the knowledge that she'd looked at his texts.

_i looked up twitown and it has some pretty neat history. And there's this huge ancient fancy clocktower. did ya know that? be sure to go up there_

Roxas actually had seen the clocktower; it was the first thing he'd seen driving into town. He shook his head fondly. His brother was pretty passionate about architecture, history, and well, knowledge in general. He liked to know the stories behind everything and spent his life cramming his brain with as many facts as he could hold. Roxas sent off a quick reply before putting his phone back in his pocket where it belonged.

_As you wish._

"My name's Rikku," Phone-thief declared suddenly. "I'm here because music is God's gift to mankind and also I don't particularly like it when decent people are pissed at me, so maybe we could call a truce and you could give me something to call you to other than Spiky?" Her lively green eyes hopefully implored him.

Roxas considered her, a bit amused by her sudden earnestness. "I don't really think truce is the appropriate word considering I haven't done anything to offend _you_, but sure, truce, if you tell me why you took my phone."

Rikku blinked, a small crease forming between her brows as if she'd never thought about that before. "No reason really. I was bored."

Roxas shook his head, figuring it would be no use trying to understand this girl. "I'm Roxas. And I suppose I have to tolerate you considering I completely agree with what you said about music," he said, sighing in defeat.

She grinned. "I think I like you already."

"Hey, everyone quiet down and listen up!"

Roxas and Rikku turned their attention to the front of the room, where the guy with the strange mullet-type-thing that somehow worked for him was standing. He was wearing a dark grey v-neck t-shirt with an array of musical notes in the shape of an ocean wave printed on the front and the words 'sound waves' under it. He flashed the class a tentative smile.

"Yo, my name's Demyx. I'm obviously not a professor. I'm actually a student here at UTT, but the music director asked me to lead this course because I play more of the instruments than he does." He chuckled a bit and gestured behind him at the wall lined with instruments. "Most of these you probably recognise, some you might not. You're mostly gonna be sticking to your primary instrument in this class, but you'll get a chance to try out some new ones too. So..." He trailed off, then stuck his hand in the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a white index card. He skimmed it for a second before shoving it back into his pocket. "Right. Chamber music. Some of the things we'll be doing in this class are ensemble arrangements, transposition, improvisation, maybe a bit of original composition, stuff like that. Uh..." He pulled out his card briefly and glanced at it before looking back at them expectantly. "Questions?"

A hand went up near the front. Demyx nodded at the girl.

"What's your instrument?" she asked.

"Uh, actually every instrument you see up here is mine." Roxas's eyebrows shot up, and there were several murmurs of surprise around the room. There had to be at least twenty instruments up there. Demyx smiled sheepishly. "If you want to know what my main instrument is, that would be my lovely sitar here," he patted a blue foreign-looking instrument affectionately, "or as I like to call her, Sasha."

A couple people chuckled. "Anything else?" he asked.

"Are you single?" someone in the middle called out. Several laughs erupted at that. Demyx chuckled uneasily and Roxas could've sworn his face turned half a shade redder.

"Anything _else_?" the student teacher evaded, scratching the back of his head. When no one responded, he continued. "No? Alright, then, we'll start by finding out how many of each instrument we have in here, to get an idea of what kind of arrangements we can slap together. Figure out who plays the same instrument as you, and group up. Kay? Go."

"I don't suppose you play the violin, do you?" Rikku asked as the class got out of their seats and began to mill about.

"Nope. I'm a sax. Guess I'll see you?"

"Yeah, see you, Roxas."

His phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out to see a reply from Ven.

_princess bride. easy. are you trying to tell me you love me? aw, roxie, im touched_

"Please tell me you're a saxophone."

Roxas looked up to see who had spoken. A tall guy, pale and pretty muscled, Roxas noticed with a hint of envy, stood looking down at him, his silver hair falling into his eyes.

"Yeah," he answered.

"Finally," the guy said, pulling a chair up in front of Roxas and straddling it backwards. "We're the only ones so far."

Roxas glanced around, noticing that mostly everyone else was forming into little groups of their own.

"Guess so." He turned his attention back to the guy in front of him. "I'm Roxas."

"Riku."

Roxas chuckled. "Déjà vu."

Riku raised a questioning eyebrow. The blond scanned the room before pointing at another blonde head sitting with a black-haired guy, probably surreptitiously swiping his valuables right under his unsuspecting nose for kicks. "See that girl with the braids over there? Her name's Rikku."

"Oh. Yeah, I think I remember hearing her name last year. Never talked to her."

"Huh. That could get confusing."

"In my defense, I'm almost 4 percent sure I was named first."

"Your confidence is overwhelming."

Riku smirked and Demyx called the class's attention back over to him.

"Alright!" the college student clapped his hands together once. "Looks like we've got a pretty good variety," he said, looking around at the clusters of people. "Unless you've all divided yourselves into various forms of clarinet. Just to make sure, let's have one person from each group come up and write your instrument on the board." He gestured to the white board on wheels behind him.

Each group sent the person who was most willing to get up (which ended up being Riku, who had surprisingly nice handwriting), and Roxas learned that their group consisted of a couple violins, several flutes, trumpets, trombones, and clarinets (including one bass clarinet), a couple baritones, a double bass, several pianos, a few French horns, a tuba, a bassoon, a few oboes, a harp, an English horn, and of course, two saxophones. There were a few people who had been awkwardly floating around in the spaces between clusters, not knowing what group to join since they played multiple instruments and didn't consider any of them their primary, so Demyx had them sit together.

The remainder of the class period consisted of each group telling the rest of the class what key their instrument played in, what range their typical chromatic scale was, and stuff like that. The class was supposed to take notes so they'd be able to use that information when arranging music for instruments other than their own. A few of the students seemed very confused about those instructions and whenever one of them stood up front, obviously not sure what to do, Riku would catch Roxas' eye and the two would silently mock them together.

The class went by fairly quickly that way and Demyx dismissed them to go to lunch.

"Roxas!"

He turned just as he was about to exit the music room, lifting an eyebrow in expectation. Rikku was hurrying to catch up with him.

"My roommate and I agreed to have lunch with each other. You don't have anyone to sit with, right?"

Roxas brushed off his indignation at her assumption, considering that it was, in fact, true. Before he could respond, however, Rikku went on. "Great! Sit with us."

Roxas wondered if he'd be able to survive another hour or so in the eccentric blonde's presence as he followed her to the campus dining hall. Upon entering he realised it was quite large, much like the rest of the school, with shiny tiled floors and rows and rows of long tables. He had to admit, the facilities at this place weren't bad. Rikku blazed a trail through the centre of the room as if she were a regular student who'd been here a thousand times. She headed straight for the pasta line and Roxas followed, seeing no better option.

"Hey, Rox!" He turned to see Yuna beaming at him, looking relieved to have found a familiar face.

He smiled cautiously, a bit taken aback by the use of the nickname usually reserved for his family. "You're going with pasta, too?"

She nodded. "It doesn't have meat in it, right? I'm a vegetarian."

He glanced at the pans of pasta, not seeing any signs of meat. "I don't think so, no."

"Yay," she cheered mildly.

Roxas glanced between the brunette and the blonde, wondering if the social graces demanded he should do introductions or something. He definitely was no expert on social graces, but he had just decided it would be a good idea when Yuna spoke up.

"Hey, Rikku," she said casually.

The blonde turned her head slightly, returning a half-hearted 'hey'.

He turned to Yuna with a raised eyebrow and she rolled her eyes, shrugging.

Nothing else was said as they awkwardly, on Roxas' part at least, had pasta shoveled onto their plates. Yuna got her drink quickly and hurried off with a quick, "See you, Rox." Maybe Roxas wasn't the only one feeling awkward after all.

Roxas glanced sideways at Rikku, wanting to ask how she knew Yuna. Had they both been there before? She hadn't seemed all that excited to see the brunette, and he didn't have any particular desire to be bombarded by unnecessary details of girl drama, so he decided to just let it drop unless she brought it up. In the meantime, he looked over the drink options, hoping they would have some kind of tea. They did, some fancy-sounding variety Roxas had never heard of, in a pitcher next to the fountain drinks. He poured himself a cup, still getting used to how rich this school was. Rikku looked like she was trying to come up with something else to talk about as she pressed the button for Sprite.

"So you know how I said my roommate was eating with us?"

He nodded.

"Well, apparently she's not actually gonna be sleeping in our room. Staying with a family friend, or something. So when she's not hanging out in our room in the daytime, I get the room to myself!" She plastered a smile on like this was the best news ever.

"Nice," he said, taking a long sip of his tea, which as it turned out, tasted pretty amazing.

"I know," she agreed as they sat down at a table by the window. "So who's Ven?"

It took him a moment to remember that she had seen the text from his brother. "Oh," he answered, enjoying his tea some more. "He's my twin."

He waited for the response that always came whenever he'd be reveal this particular bit of information about himself, and sure enough, Rikku's eyes lit up in interest.

"You have a twin?"

"Mhm."

She seemed to be considering this, taking a bite of her pasta, which Roxas still hadn't touched, because seriously, this was hands-down the best tea he'd ever tasted. It deserved his undivided attention.

"My parents used to tell me I had a twin that they had left on the side of the road when she was a little girl, because she couldn't behave," Rikku said. "I believed them until I was six."

He laughed, and it came out louder than he intended, but at the moment he didn't care, because suddenly he felt really good. Rikku jumped slightly in surprise, which just made Roxas laugh more because, honestly, this girl was _hilarious_. Or maybe it was just his sudden good mood. The term rose-colored glasses sprung to mind, only his world seemed less rosy and a bit more...glowy. Yeah. That was it. Everything had a bright, hazy sort of aura about it. Rikku was looking at him with a slightly alarmed look on her face but right now he was distracted because a girl was just sitting down at their table and Roxas almost had to squint because she positively _shone_.

She was a fragile-looking little wisp of a thing, with pale skin and light grey-blue eyes. Her hair was so blonde it was almost white and Roxas couldn't help but think that it basically put Rikku's yellowish braids to shame. The girl's tank top was white, for the sole purpose of blinding him just a bit more, Roxas figured.

"You didn't mention your roommate was an angel," was what he thought just came out of his mouth, and judging from the girl's eyebrows flying up to disappear under her bangs and Rikku's poorly suppressed guffaw, yep, that's exactly what he said.

"I mean, you're like, glowing," he went on, his hand reaching out to see if her aura was actually tangible. The shining blonde shrunk back slightly, looking seriously uneasy, and he dropped his hand back down to the table, wondering if she would break if he touched her.

"But then again," and why was he still talking? "You're kinda glowing, too, Rikku, and you're not even vaguely angelic."

It was Rikku's turn for her eyebrows to shoot up, but in her case it seemed to be in amusement. "Did you just...?" He squinted at her, which made him dizzy, and his brain vaguely registered that the glowing auras surrounding everything in the room were actually closely overlapping double images. He groaned, pressing his palms into his eyelids.

"Is he okay…?" The girl in white murmured softly, and even her voice sounded a bit ethereal.

"Are _you_ okay?" he shot back, letting his hands fall away from his eyes and back down to the table and frowning at her. "You're like, freakishly pale. Maybe you're not an angel, maybe you're like a ghost. I've never done anything to hurt you, I'm pretty sure I don't even know you, so please don't like, haunt me or anything..." He laughed at his witty joke before he was hit by another wave of dizziness, compelling him to close his eyes tight.

Rikku reached across the table and snatched his nearly-empty cup of tea, ignoring Roxas's weak protests and lifting it to her nose, inhaling.

"What kind of tea is this?"

Roxas frowned, straining to remember what label had been taped on the side of the pitcher.

"Puh... Puhh..."

Rikku suddenly burst out laughing like he'd told the funniest joke she'd ever heard. "Pu-erh?" she supplied.

He nodded, raising an eyebrow. After a few moments Rikku had collected herself enough to choke out a few more words. "These... darn... rich people and their fancy drinks."

"It's really good tea…"

"Are you sure you don't need to go to the nurse or anything?" his angel asked warily.

"Nah, he should be fine in a minute or two," Rikku chuckled, leaning over and dumping the remainder of the contents of Roxas's cup into the trash bin conveniently placed at the end of their table.

"Hey!" Roxas grabbed the cup back and stared disbelievingly into its emptiness. "Why'd you…?"

"I'm afraid you're tea drunk, my dear." Rikku reached out and patted his hand comfortingly. Roxas continued staring into his cup in despair.

"I'm not drunk."

"Mm, but you kinda are," Rikku said wisely, still trying to contain her chuckles. "Happened to my aunt once, she drank a bit too much Chinese pu-erh and got _quite_ friendly and a bit… overconfident. As I remember, she started shamelessly chatting up every waiter that passed by. But then again, she'd had like six cups or something. I've never seen someone get tea drunk so fast, you lightweight."

"It was really good tea..."

"Eat," Rikku ordered, pointing at his plate of untouched fettuccine. "You need something else in your stomach." He obeyed, suddenly feeling overpoweringly hungry anyway.

The sun broke through the clouds and slanted through the window next to their table, making Roxas squint some more. He blinked at the angel, fork halfway to his mouth.

"Do you, like, control the weather or something?"

The angel tittered and Rikku pointed at his fork. "Keep eating."

He shoved more forkfuls of pasta into his mouth, and man, the food here was incredible too. It was going to be a good summer.

They ate peacefully for a few minutes, Rikku making small talk with the angel and Roxas obediently keeping his mouth shut except to insert food into it, enjoying his strange Zen feeling. He noticed the blonde angel would glance at him every so often with a wary expression. About halfway through his plate of food, the world shifted back into sharp relief and he felt his mind settle down into its normal order, suddenly realising all the stupid things that had recently come out of his mouth. His eyes widened.

"Oh."

Rikku and the pale, blonde girl who no doubt thought he was a very rude freak turned their attention back to him.

"Is your brain fully functional again?" Rikku asked perkily.

Roxas groaned and buried his face in his hands. "Why do they even have that drink?"

The angel girl reaction burst into laughter at the same time that Rikku said, "Honestly, you must have some kind of strange reaction to it, because it doesn't have any kind of effect on normal people unless you drink a ton of it. And still your reaction was...pretty weird."

"Of course," he drawled. "I couldn't just be a normal person." He peeked between his fingers to see the angel still laughing, and were those tears starting to form in her eyes?

"I'm sorry," she choked out, voice breathy. "But that was... incredible. What you just did... I have... never seen anything like that before."

Roxas groaned again. "Can you just kill me now, please?"

"Ugh, no, I see enough dead bodies on a daily basis," Rikku answered. The angel's laughs suddenly died out and both of the other blonds stared at the braided girl.

"What?" she asked, glancing between the other two. "Oh. I forgot you guys don't know me. My parents run a mortuary, and that's where we live."

"Let me guess," Roxas deadpanned. "You pilfer the dead bodies for loose change and stuff every time a new one comes in."

Rikku scoffed in mock indignation. "I swear, you take a guy's phone just one time..."

The angel glanced between the other two, obviously not knowing what they were talking about.

"So, you two are friends...?" she asked.

"Oh! Right, I didn't tell you he was eating with us," Rikku said. "This is Roxas, he's a twin. We have a couple classes together so far, and he's not very responsible with his belongings. Also, he apparently has strange reactions to high quality tea. Roxas, this is Naminé. Her brother is super overprotective and won't let her stay in the dorm with me. Probably a wise choice on his part. Also, she doesn't get out much."

Naminé frowned. Roxas was glad he now had a name to identify her by other than 'angel.' "I never said I don't get out much," she grumbled.

"Sweetie, I can tell these things," Rikku said, placing a hand over Naminé's in a jokingly caring way. "Overprotective brother plus you staring at everyone and everything as if you've just landed in Oz equals 'I don't get out much.'"

Naminé's face turned a shade redder and she picked up her fork, stabbing at her fettuccine noodles vigorously.

Disregarding Naminé's embarrassment, Rikku went on cheerfully, "And then when I introduced myself this morning, you gaped at me for a good five seconds before even responding."

Naminé removed her hand from under Rikku's and stared down at her lap. "I certainly do not have the talent which some people possess of conversing easily with those I have never seen before."

Roxas brightened. "We neither of us perform for strangers," he replied, thinking of his own awkwardness in talking to Yuna for the first time that morning.

Naminé looked up quickly, surprise clear on her features. She opened her mouth a few times before words finally made their way out. "Okay, so not only have you _read_ Pride and Prejudice, but you remember it well enough to quote it?"

Roxas pouted. "You started it."

Naminé laughed happily. "Yeah, but I didn't expect anyone to actually get the reference."

Roxas smiled sheepishly. "My friend made me read it," he defended, remembering the summer Aqua decided they all ought to be well-versed in 'decent, quality literature'. "And I remember most things I read in books or hear in TV shows and movies. It's actually kind of a running competition I have with my brother, we both try to stump each other by using quotes in everyday conversation and seeing if the other catches it. So far neither of us have missed one."

Naminé looked delighted, but Rikku cut in. "Excuse me for interrupting this geekfest, but isn't the whole reason you came to this program thing to 'perform for strangers', Roxas? I mean, you're kind of a musician."

"That's not the point," Naminé leveled Rikku with such a patronizing look that Roxas almost burst out laughing. The expression looked so foreign on the sweet blonde's face. "Elizabeth was a musician, too, in fact Darcy was referring to her musical performance when he made that comment. She just didn't need to try and make herself seem better for the sake of people she didn't know. Same with Darcy. He was a good person, he just didn't see a point in maintaining an admirable public image. Outward appearances were so important in their culture, so he was considered... strange... for that." She petered out towards the end, reddening again as Rikku blinked at her. "I... like books."

Roxas laughed. "I guess so."

Rikku shook her head, a small smile on her face. "So what class do you two have for the afternoon?"

"Theatre," the two replied in unison. Naminé blinked at Roxas in surprise.

"Really?" Rikku looked between them. "Me too! Yay, I'm not the only one who's gonna embarrass myself!"

"Hey!" Roxas frowned indignantly. "What makes you think I'm not brilliant at acting?"

Rikku shrugged, smirking. "I guess we'll see, won't we?"

* * *

A/N: If you caught the reference in this chapter (the one that wasn't expressly pointed out by a character, and no, not the Oz one), you are an exceptional human being.

Next chapter, the shadowy figure that was promised in the summary makes its debut and things start to get a bit mysterious. Ish. To a certain extent. Also, thank you for getting this far despite my awful summary. I don't enjoy writing those.

Don't forget to review!


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